"Skipped missing target" -- why?

This seems to be a frequently asked question, but I think my version of the question is unique. I'm fairly comfortable with merging at this point but while doing something new today I got this message and I want to understand why.      I setup a new branch off my trunk to work on an experimental feature. Basically:    svn cp http://trunk http://newbranch    As part of the work that I have been doing on the new branch, I have been renaming some files.    Now I am merging the on-going work on the trunk into my new branch so that I can stay up with the mainline development.    Any file which was modified on the trunk and simultaneously renamed on the branch gives me a "Skipped missing target" message.    Is this because I did something wrong, or is this something that subversion can't do yet?    I realize that it would be complicated for subversion to track changes across a branch when the file was renamed -- difficult but not impossible. So my hypothesis is that subversion is skipping them because it thinks the file was deleted, even though it was actually moved. Am I right??    Thanks for any info---

Last updated 14 years ago

I should probably explain that when I say I "renamed" a file... I used "svn mv oldfile newfile"    Also, if it matters, my merge syntax is like this:    svn merge -r 100:head http://trunk /newbranch    where revision 100 right after i initially created the branch, and /newbranch is a path to a WC containing my new branch.    I use this merge syntax every week to merge bug fixes from our release branches back into the trunk, so I don't think that is the problem.

It's something subversion can't do yet. It doesn't really do a good job with moves and renames.    To subversion, there's no such thing as a move/rename really. It "cleverly" uses a copy+delete to simulate one. Simple, yes, but detrimental to some really valuable functionality. I don't know what kind of roadmap it's on, but I think it's a recognized flaw.    Anyway, since it sees the file as a copy and not the same file, it won't merge it for you. Your original file looks like it was deleted to subversion.